karen templer has organized slow fashion october and it looks like fun. i haven't mapped out my plan, so i guess i have some work to do. :) this week's prompt is to introduce ourselves in terms of slow fashion and crafting, so here goes.

i've been a seamstress since i was a girl sewing dolls and doll clothes. fashion and sewing clothing for myself began to interest me when i was 12. i liked to look through vogue and bazaar magazines and be able to combine elements into styles that appealed to me. i would draw magazine pages for my own fashions and then look for sewing patterns that i could adapt into my dream styles. it was always surprising to find out how easily patterns could be changed to become what i wanted them to be (not that they always did). :)

​i was able to design my wedding dress and cut into my smaller mother's beautiful dress to create what i envisioned for my own. when my girls were born, i sewed for them and designed a very small line of baby clothes that sold in stores in southern california for a couple of years. sewing clothing has always been quite exciting.

i picked up knitting right around the time i turned 30 and was elated to learn a new skill! it can be difficult to end up with exactly what i'm imagining, but the process is full of discovery and when the result matches what's in my head…there's just nothing like it!

a number of years ago, i started to be aware of where our store bought clothing was coming from, who was sewing them and under what conditions. i knew how difficult it was to sew a button down shirt and had never even tackled a pair of jeans, so i knew the prices we were paying for such things were not quite right. since then prices have gotten cheaper, there is always something new at the shops, and quality has become almost impossible to find at the mall.

​disposable fashion is even more disturbing than disposable forks, so i love the idea of slow fashion…slowly and thoughtfully created to be worn for a good long time. almost all clothing is made by hand…whether mine or another's, and i want to respect the one to whom those hands belong and also the work of their hands.